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Between 2021-2023, a former employee at one of game publisher Bandai Namco’s subsidiaries allegedly “misappropriated” around 500 million yen (approximately $3.38 million USD), resulting in the employee’s arrest and a temporary pay cut for many of the subsidiary’s leadership, the company has announced.
While the arrest happened in January 2024 and Bandai Namco has since been pursuing civil and criminal charges against the former employee, the company is just now able to disclose the incident, according to a press release outlining the alleged misconduct and the steps Bandai Namco has taken to remedy the situation.
The alleged embezzlement occurred at Bandai Namco’s Hong Kong subsidiary Bandai Logipal and was discovered via an internal audit. Following the former employee’s arrest, Bandai Logipal took disciplinary actions against many of its leadership in the form of a temporary pay deduction. Four officers and three full-time directors saw a 30% pay deduction for three months starting in April 2024, with two other full-time directors seeing a 15% pay deduction for the same period.
“Our group takes the occurrence of this incident very seriously and we sincerely and deeply apologize to all our stakeholders for their concerns and the inconvenience caused by such incident,” Bandai Namco states. “We will continue our full cooperation with the local law enforcement authorities for the investigation, and we as a group shall work together to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.”
In a step to prevent a similar incident in the future, the Japan-based Bandai Namco is forming a new department to supervise the management of overseas subsidiaries. It notes that the impact of the incident on Bandai Namco’s fiscal year ending March 31, 2026 is expected to be minimal.
Sony recently announced it will be investing $463 million in Bandai Namco as part of a “strategic partnership” that will see it own around 2.5% of the entertainment company. While both company’s are well known for video games, in a joint statement, Bandai Namco and Sony said it will “focus on expanding the fan community for IP such as anime and manga around the world and strengthening engagement, particularly in the anime field where rapid market growth is anticipated.”
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